And she has capped off a memorable 12 months off by being named as Asia's best female player at the annual Asian Football Confederation (AFC) awards held in Bangkok overnight on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old, who plays for Perth Glory in the W-League and Sky Blue FC in the National Women's Soccer League in the US, took the title ahead of DPR Korea forward Sung Hyang Sim and Japanese defender Saki Kumagai.

It is a rich reward for the forward, who, until quite recently, was better known as the younger sister of retired AFL star Daniel Kerr. Nowadays it is the West Coast Eagles premiership winning player who is known as the older brother of one of world soccer's shooting stars.

"This is the third time Australia have won the award and I think we are going in the right direction with women's football in Australia," Kerr said after picking up the award.

"I am very proud to fly the flag for Australia. Individual awards are not important.

"It's been a good year for the clubs and the Matildas and my top memory on a personal level is breaking the (scoring) record, and the award in the US which I will probably remember forever.

"My teammates are everything, like I said, without them it wouldn't be possible. My two clubs are my everything and hopefully in the future I will have success also with the national team."

Kerr starred for the Matildas in the recent two-match series with China, scoring twice in both the 3-0 win in Melbourne and the 5-1 victory in Geelong.

In the latter game she set a record, scoring for the national team for the sixth game in a row.

Her international coach Alen Stajcic says the improvement she has made in recent times is a testament to her dedication and hard work - and the increasing maturity she has shown in her game has taken her to the next level.

"She's a true professional and I think she has shown that. The amount of attention she has had in the last three months, it's really gone from zero to 100.

"To be able to come out and perform shows how much she has matured as a person and shows her sporting quality. She's really becoming one of the superstars of Australian sport, to be able to reproduce effort after effort in every game ... what else can you say."

Former Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou and Japan's Masatada Ishii were beaten to the coach's award by another Japanese, Takafumi Hori, while international Asian player of the year, given to players from the region who earn their living outside of Asia, went to Tottenham midfielder Son Heung-min, who beat out Aaron Mooy.

Omar Khrbin, part of the Syria side who faced the Socceroos in September's Asian World Cup play-offs, became the first player from his nation to be crowned Asia's player of the year.

The 23-year-old claimed the title ahead of last year's winner, Omar Abdulrahman of the United Arab Emirates, and China's Wu Lei, who missed out for the second year in a row.

with Reuters